Random Pictures

Not a whole lot going on here - worth blogging about, that is, so here are some random pictures of the girls over that last couple of weeks.

Norah's little caterpillar friend. She has found several in our backyard and insists on carrying them around for awhile.

Norah and Lucy are wearing dresses that my sister and I wore when we were about their same ages. My mom made the dresses for Easter one year, I think.

Norah doesn't nap everyday, but she does have a rest time. Often after playing for awhile, she crashes where ever she is. She has her quilt on the floor and she is lying on top.

On this day, Norah fell asleep in her beanbag - doesn't look to comfy to me, but whatever works.

Lucy's crazy morning hair!! This is actually not the worst it can be - but I usually forget to take a picture of her in the morning.

Why Don't My Kids Sleep in the Car?!

I don't know what the deal is, but my kids rarely sleep in the car. On the way to Indy, the girls slept for about 30 minutes of the 4 1/2 hour drive. Lucy screamed off and on for about an hour and a half. Then on the way home, Lucy fell asleep about 20 minutes before we got home and Norah fell asleep about 10 minutes later. They both screamed off and on unless we had a movie going. I am not about to let them watch movies the entire drive - so we listened to the screaming. Seriously, what's wrong with my children?

Ahh - - a Beautiful Weekend in Indy!

As I was reading Heather's blog, I was quite thankful that we were not here for the weekend to experience the yucky weather. Instead we were in Indianapolis enjoying the BEAUTIFUL weather!!!! It was sunny and 70 degrees on Saturday for the Indianapolis 500 parade. Sunday was sunny and 75! It was incredible!! We played outside most of the weekend - the girls had a great time.

We Love the Zoo!

The girls and I went to the zoo yesterday with my parents and Alison and the boys. We love the zoo! I love that it's free! I wanted to park on the street so we didn't have to pay for parking, and even though we were there before the zoo opened - all the street parking was full (unless we wanted to walk a couple of miles). When we pulled into the parking lot - my dad said he would pay for our parking - there were no attendants so we got to park for free!!!

The kids had a great time and were perfect. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day! We walked through the dinosaur exhibit, which is there for the summer. It was pretty interesting - I thought Norah might be afraid because they were life-size replicas, but she did great!

The girls and I only had 3 hours because Norah had a dance practice in the afternoon to get ready for the recital. So after we walked around most of the zoo we ate our lunch very quickly and then had to book it to the car!

Enjoy the pictures!

Planting Flowers

I love flowers! I love how they perk up a house or yard! I just don't love planting - so while my parents were here we planted most of my flowers. My mom loves doing it so we plant together most years.

This year Norah was quite helpful. She picked out some flowers for her own pot - her favorite is the pink petunia. She and my mom planted them and Norah did a great job!

Lucy also tried to help. She just moved the flowers back and forth from the flat to my mom. It kept her busy and happy.
We ended up with 14 pots and they look great! I think I did 4 or 5 and my mom did the rest. Thanks Mom!! Now the trick will be to keep them watered all summer!

Go Cards!

Kevin and I took the girls to the Cardinal game on Thursday game. The Cards lost - big time - and it rained and was cold the whole game, but we still had a great time!! The girls did great! No one was crabby or asking to leave! We sat in our seats (we stayed dry because we sit under and overhang) until partway through the 6th inning, then we went to the Family Pavilion to the play area.

Norah's Love/Hate Relationship with Baseball

Several weeks ago the girls and I had a Cardinal game on (Kevin was at the game). Norah is jumping up and down shouting, "I love baseball! Go Cards!"

A couple of days ago Kevin was watching the Cardinal game. While eating a snack (with her back to the TV), Norah says in a voice that sounded somewhat annoyed, "Dad, why do you ALWAYS watch baseball?"

This morning I told Norah that we are going to a Cardinal game this week, "I don't want to go! I don't like baseball."

Tonight she says, "I can't wait to go to the Cards game! I just love baseball!"

We'll see what she actually thinks of the game. Last year, Norah cried every time the crowd cheered loudly.

Big Girl Bed Update

Other than a little crying when she first went down, Lucy actually did pretty well. She was asleep by 8:15 (normal bedtime is 7ish) and she didn't get out of bed until 7:15 this morning. She seem quite proud of herself this morning.
Naptime could be tricky - we'll see!

Big Girl Bed

After much deliberation, we decided to put Lucy in a big girl bed - well, just a twin mattress on the floor. Last time we were out of town and Lucy slept in the pack n play, she DID NOT sleep very well. She woke up multiple times - she is just getting too long. Also, we have seen her attempt to climb out - with little success, but we don't want to wait until she hurts herself.
Kevin took the crib down and bought a mattress. She has been talking about it for a couple of weeks - so when he got home, she shouted, "Daddy home! Yea, big girl bed!"
The transition was pretty easy with Norah, she didn't try to get out for about 2 months - she would just call for us if she woke up. I think it may be a different story with Lucy.
We read stories in her bed girl and she laid down so Kevin could take her picture (all of which are blurry), but as soon as we shut the door she started screaming! We thought we would just give her a few minutes to see if she settles down. After a couple of minutes we heard her at the top of the stairs - umm, we didn't know she could open doors. Kevin laid down with her for awhile, but she just wanted to play and be silly.
So she is in her room - crying and yelling, "Daddy, come up now! Mommy, help me! I go out now!" All this over and over. She will get quiet for a few minutes, then it starts all over. She may end up sleeping on the floor. It will be my turn to go up in a few minutes.
I'll update tomorrow.

Little Bunny Foo Foo

Kevin was working in the yard this evening and realized we had some visitors - 3 actually. He took Norah out to take a peek.

Lucy Mae

I took Lucy to the doctor for her 2 year check-up. She is as healthy as can be - thank goodness, because that was not the case last year! She is 23.4 pounds and 31 inches long. She is a petite thing, but boy did she talk the doctor's ear off.

She wore herself out talking - she fell asleep on the way to pick Norah up from school and she took and afternoon nap.

Lucy also moved up to the next nursery at church - which means she gets to play with playdoh, listen to a story, and color a picture. She was very excited about this. She wanted to hold on to her picture the whole way home from church!!

Happy Birthday, Lucy

Does every mom start birthday blogs with this statement? I can't believe my baby is 2! I honestly don't know where the last 2 years have gone. It feels like just last week Lucy was a baby! Looking back to May 1, 2006, brings a few tears - probably normal for most moms, but we had a rough start with Lucy. I was scheduled for a c-section at 8:15 a.m., but when we went at 6 to prep for surgery, the nurses couldn't detect Lucy's heartbeat. They did an ultrasound and all of the sudden I was being rushed to the O.R. for an emergency c-section. Lucy was not breathing when she was born. The doctor started to intubate her (we are all still in the O.R. - my doctor was stitching me up), but pulled the tube out to try again, as she pulled the tube out, Lucy started breathing. Praise the Lord! Lucy spent the next 36 hours in the NICU - since I had a c-section, it was very hard for me to go see her.

By the grace of God, here we are 2 years later - and she is perfectly healthy.

Now, let me tell you about my little Lucy. She is a comedian. She lives for making people laugh - especially people she knows very well. If Norah is grumpy or sad, Lucy will do whatever she can to make Norah happy. This may involve walking silly, talking silly, or maybe sticking things in her ears.

As stated in previous posts, Lucy likes to talk, I mean LOVES to talk. Her language is great for a 2-year old. Her speech is pretty good, too, but there are still a handful of words that we don't always understand. Some of the phrases that we hear on a regular basis are: alright, annoying, I do (often she means I am), mocagycle (motorcycle), big girl baby, and after potty (I often tell her we can do something after she goes potty)

When we ask her how old she is, she holds up 5 fingers and says 3.

She is counting and usually gets to 9 pretty quickly. Sometimes she forgets 1, but once I say 1 she continues on to 9. She is also learning to count in Spanish so sometimes she throws in a Spanish number in place of an English one.

Lucy's favorite book right now is the Little People Let's Go To the Zoo. We read this over and over!

She also loves to mimic Norah. She often repeats everything Norah says and does - sometimes driving Norah crazy.

She loves to dress up and play with baby dolls. A recent favorite is to pretend she is a puppy. She crawls around barking, panting, and licking people.

Lucy is a snuggler. She loves hugs and cuddles. Often when one of us carries her somewhere, she wraps her legs all around our waists and her arms around our necks.

She is a sweet, happy baby, I mean little girl. We are so thankful God gave her to us!

Happy Birthday, Lucy!

Okay, so this picture needs some explanation. The girls were "playing school" and she put on Norah's shoes, her jacket and back pack and said to me "Bye, Mom. Love you!"